Prepology: Simple definition, the art of survival and being in control of your future to the extent that you can! Life comes at us in both a predictable and un-predictable way and while you can shape it to some extent with the decisions that you make we are still just rolling the dice in the big game of life so lets put the odds in your favor. Oscar.... Your comments, stories or experiences are welcome.

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"History affords us many instances of the ruin of states, by the prosecution of measures ill suited to the temper and genius of their people. The ordaining of laws in favor of one part of the nation, to the prejudice and oppression of another, is certainly the most erroneous and mistaken policy. An equal dispensation of protection, rights, privileges, and advantages, is what every part is entitled to, and ought to enjoy... These measures never fail to create great and violent jealousies and animosities between the people favored and the people oppressed; whence a total separation of affections, interests, political obligations, and all manner of connections, by which the whole state is weakened." --Benjamin Franklin, Emblematical Representations

Is this not a snapshot of the times? I do believe that our founders had a sort of vision into the future because the above quote is as relevant today as it could ever be.

I have noticed from several blogs and forums the frustrations of new preppers to the art of preparedness, it happens. Prepping to many people can be a bug that bites many people pretty hard and fast and therefore it can be discouraging when they try and compare themselves to others who have been in it longer. For myself I would rather use the analogy of a marathon because it can be a very long race to getting prepared with the difference of there really never being a finish line so you need to work it in a steady pace and try to not overwhelm yourself, it takes time for some things to come to fruition especially if it is skills that you are working on. Speaking of skills versus gear I have my own process on those, Gear is sometimes the easiest to procure because it is mostly a mouse click away and it is a pretty good way to get your foot into the door. Skills though can sometimes take years to master but unlike gear they are always with you and you generally never loose them. Now one wonders why a person would not just stock up on some gear and call it good? That requires another explanation.

In the grand scheme of things I generally put a person with gear as able to survive smaller, shorter less intense scenarios, typically these would be events lasting from a few days to no more than a week or two, Think of how long your BOB would last you here. Now lets look at an event lasting several weeks to maybe several years, is your gear going to last and provide for you for that time frame? most likely some items will but not all and that's where good skills will come in such as medical training, gardening or even basic hunting skills, do you see the differences?

Keep in mind that I believe a person or group that has a mix of both gear and skills will be better off in the long run but it is a balancing act for sure and again it can be very overwhelming so If you find yourself getting frustrated than one thing I found that has helped me is to temporarily move to another thing on the list such as a different skill or the research of another item or even take a break altogether, bear in mind that this can be very consuming but try to no let it consume you completely. Another thing to try is to divide and conquer ( You should be anyway ) This really is something that is very hard to do by yourself, is your spouse on board? Are your closest friends involved?

In my travels throughout this country I can attest to both of the above statements, as for myself I have no idea where I fall either. Maybe somewhere in the middle? I do know one thing though and that is there will always be someone smarter and always someone the lesser, I would like to be the former though.

From my semi-educated side I am one to believe that while history may not in fact exactly repeat itself it sure does a pretty good job of paralleling itself. Having an interest in history on my side has allowed me to see some things in a certain light and that has given me a new appreciation for the old saying or "Ignorance is bliss"
Having said that there are any number of things going on in our country that I wish were not, or at least I wish I did not know about them but me being a searcher of news and info it is unavoidable that these things come to my attention.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't. You would think that with all of our higher education learning facilities we would refrain from the continuation of policies and mistakes that seem to plague us, but in reality all we seem to do is to make up new excuses as to why we need to continue repeating them with the expectation of a different result. Maybe were too smart for our own good, I have no doubt that far too many things are over thought, Scotty was in my opinion right "The more complicated the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain" This can crossover to many facets of our lives, some of us realize it but many do not and for those of us that do we are often ridiculed out of ignorance and denial.

Solutions? I believe they are out there for me and you but what may be good for the goose may not be good for the gander, many of are highly individualistic and independent and our own solutions may fall out of the norms of society but that does not make it wrong, just different. I try to put decisions not into legal terms but I do keep in mind two things, 1 an I going to pick someones pocket? and 2 Am I going to break someones leg? Thank you Mr. Jefferson. I think that both of these as applied to life will keep your conscience clean and hold you in good standing with your fellow man but we all know that life is now far more complicated and maybe that is the problem in the first place. We seem to be that victim of our own successes.

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